Report: Mars may be too salty for life

BOSTON, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- Scientists meeting in Boston say water on Mars may have been too acidic and too salty to encourage the formation of living organisms.

"It was salty enough that only a handful of known terrestrial organisms would have a ghost of a chance of surviving there when conditions were at their best," said Harvard biologist Andrew Knoll, a member of the Mars rover science team.

Knoll and his team members spoke Friday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston, MSNBC reported Saturday.

The findings were based on water and soil samples taken by the rover Opportunity when it moved over the Red Planet's surface after landing four years ago.

The Martian surface was found to be "arid, acidic and oxidizing,'" Knoll said, noting, "That's not a very pleasant place to live, and it's a worse place to try to do the chemistry that is generally thought to have given rise to life on this planet."